San Onofre

READER’S EDITORIAL: GRANHOLM VISIT RAISES MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS

 

By Bart Ziegler, PhD

June 27, 2023 (San Diego) -- When announcing that the Biden administration has committed $26 million to search for sites to store the nation's nuclear waste, U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm raised more questions than answers.


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FEDERAL ORDER DISMISSES CPUC APPEAL, ALLOWS AGUIRRE TO BE PAID FOR SAN ONOFRE SETTLEMENT BENEFITTING RATEPAYERS

 

 

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: Ray Lutz, founder of Citizens Oversight, lead plaintiff in the case that recovered  $775 million for ratepayers, praises the courts action.

November 18, 2018 (San Diego)  The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday dismissed an appeal from the California Public Utilities Commission which had sought to block payment of $5.4 million in legal fees to the law firm of former San Diego City Attorney Mike Aguirre. The fees were for work done by Aguirre’s firm on behalf of ratepayers in a settlement which saved ratepayers $775 million dollars related to shutdown of the San Onofre nuclear power plant.


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CITIZENS OVERSIGHT SIGNS $873 MILLION SAN ONOFRE SHUTDOWN SETTLEMENT WITH SCE, SDG&E AND OTHER PARTIES

 

Substantial relief to ratepayers: $873 million will not be paid to utilities over the next 5 years, resulting in $775 million reduction

East County News Service

January 31, 2017 (San Diego) – Citizens Oversight, also operating as the “Coalition to Decommission San Onofre,” today signed a settlement agreement with Southern California Edison (SCE), San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E) and other ratepayer advocates to bring to a close the dispute over the amount ratepayers are obligated to pay for the San Onofre Nuclear Generation Station (SONGS).  The nuclear plant was subject to an emergency shutdown on January 31, 2012, and permanently shuttered on June 6, 2013.


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NAVY TO COASTAL COMMISSION: “YOU HAVE NO JURISDICTION” TO DUMP NUCLEAR WASTE AT BEACH

 

East County News Service

December 6, 2017 (San Diego) — New research by Public Watchdogs reveals that the Navy warned the California Coastal Commission four days prior to its vote on October 6, 2015  that  the Commission "lacked the jurisdiction" to grant Southern California Edison a permit to bury nuclear waste just 108 feet from the beach at San Onofre State Beach Park.


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CRITICS CALL TODAY'S "CELEBRATION" OF SETTLEMENT TO REMOVE NUCLEAR WASTE" A SHAM

 

East County News Service

September 24, 2017 (San Diego)--Critics are calling today's planned rally in Oceanside that "celebrates the removal of nuclear waste at San Onofre" a sham that does not reflect reality, the opinions of nuclear waste experts or the community. These experts say the celebration tricks the media and the public into believing that the nuclear waste problems at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) have been solved.

Local critics say that Citizens Oversight, the group hosting the "celebration" is misleading the public with magical thinking and an irrational belief in "purple unicorns."


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ARIZONA REFUSES SPENT FUEL FROM SAN ONOFRE; DOCTOR’S GROUP CRITICIZES NUCLEAR WASTE SETTLEMENT PLAN

 

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: San Onofre nuclear facility, before its shutdown in 2013.

August 31, 2017 (San Diego) – Finding a safe place to store spent nuclear fuel from the shuttered San Onofre Nuclear Generating Stations is a daunting task. Yesterday, East County Magazine reported on a settlement reached between Citizens Oversight and Southern California Edison that aspires to move the radioactive waste away from the beach at San Onofre over the next couple of decades.

One of the proposed sites   is in Arizona. But now officials at Arizona Public Services Company, which operates the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station west of Phoenix,  say they won’t take California’s nuclear wastes. 


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SETTLEMENT REACHED IN SUIT OVER SAN ONOFRE NUCLEAR WASTE

 

 

By Miriam Raftery

August 29, 2017 (San Diego) –Citizens Oversight announced today that it has reached a deal with Southern California Edison that aims to ultimately relocate 3.6 million pounds of nuclear waste away from the San Onofre beach. The spent fuel is from the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Stations shuttered in 2013 following a radioactive leak and various safety concerns.


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TRIAL TO REVOKE NUCLEAR WASTE DUMP PERMIT AT SAN ONOFRE BEGINS APRIL 14

 

By Miriam Raftery

April 4, 2017 (San Diego) – A lawsuit filed against the California Coastal Commission (CCC) by Citizens Oversight, a citizens’ watchdog group based in El Cajon, heads to trial beginning Friday, April 14 at 2 p.m. in San Diego Superior Court, Dept. C68 (330 West Broadway, San Diego).


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KAMALA HARRIS DRAWS FIRE FOR MISSING KEY DEADLINE IN SAN ONOFRE INVESTIGATION

 

By Miriam Raftery

May 6, 2016 (San Diego) – California Attorney General Kamala Harris, who is running for the U.S. Senate, let the statute of limitations run out without filing charges over secret meetings in Poland between a Southern California Edison executive and then-president of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC)  Michael Peevey.   The secret meeting appeared to be illegal and instrumental in formation of a deal that forced ratepayers to foot the bill for billions of dollars related to the San Onofre nuclear power plant settlement.

“What Kamala Harris is doing is like a copy who witnessed a bank heist and did nothing,” Charles Langley, public advocate at Public Watchdogs, told East County Magazine.

But Michael Shanes, San Diego Consumer Action Network, defended Harris' actions. In an e-mail to ECM, he wrote, "...there was no criminal activity and Harris did the obvious by declining to press charges."


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JUDGE ORDERS CPUC PRESIDENT TO REVEAL SECRET DOCUMENTS

 

Ballot initiative proposed to break up CPUC

East County News Service

February 12, 2016 (San Diego)--A San Francisco Superior Court Judge has ruled that secret e-mails between Michael Picker, the President of the California Public Utilities Commission, the Governor's Office and Southern California Edison must be made public.(Read the order.)


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ATTORNEY GENERAL PROBE WEIGHS POSSIBLE CRIMINAL CHARGES AGAINST EX-CPUC PRESIDENT PEEVEY

By Miriam Raftery

December 30, 2015 (San Diego) –California Attorney General Kamala Harris’ office may file criminal charges against Michael Peevey,  former president of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), over back-room dealings concerning a settlement deal over the shutdown of the San Onofre nuclear facility.

A sworn affidavit by Specia Agent Reye Diaz with the Attorney General’s office in late September and recently unsealed reveals  that Diaz found “probable cause to believe” that Peevey and Southern California Edison vice president Stephen Pickett  “conspired to obstruct justice” by knowingly engaging in illegal private communications to craft a shut-down deal advantageous to Edison, but  disadvantageous to other interested parties.


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SAN DIEGO ATTORNEYS FIGHT "MOST IRRESPONSIBLE NUCLEAR DUMP EVER" IN FEDERAL COURT

East County News Service

November 7, 2015 (San Diego) – On November 3rd, the  utility fraud attorneys at Aguirre & Severson  filed an action in Superior Court seeking to prevent construction of  the world’s first beach-front nuclear waste dump at San Onofre, or what critics call the “most irresponsible nuclear dump ever,” according to a press release issued by the attorneys, who filed the suit on behalf of Citizens Oversight.

The California Coastal Commission is chartered to protect our state’s coastal resources. But on October 6 approved the dump just 100 feet from the beach near San Onofre State Park in San Diego County to hold nuclear waste that remains toxic for thousands of years. Wastes would be stored in thin-walled steel casks guaranteed by the manufacturer to last only 10 years, though the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved them for up to 20 years of use. Salt water spray soaking casks could result in even earlier corrosion, yet there is no plan to remove casks even after 20 years. By then, the casks, each weighing 400,000 pounds, are apt to have degraded to the point where moving them safely would be nearly impossible, a press release issued by plantiff's attorneys contends.

Attorney Mike Aguirre called the Coastal Commission’s unanimous vote “an outrageous departure from its chartered responsibilities and the California Coastal Act,” adding, “We want the court to revoke Southern California Edison’s permit to pollute, and force Edison to find a safer location.”  The suit seeks revocation of the permit for the dump.


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NBC TV INVESTIGATION FINDS EVIDENCE OF RADIOACTIVE DEBRIS ON BEACH AT SAN ONOFRE; “SLOPPY” HANDLING OF NUCLEAR WASTES

 

By East County News Service

September 26, 2015 (San Diego) – An investigation by KNSD-TV Channel 7 , the NBC affiliate in San Diego, has dropped a bombshell regarding efforts to cover-up lax handling of nuclear waste and radiation leaks at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Stations.   Get the full report and the confidential documents here.  

NBC’s investigation found high radiation levels endangered Southern California employees in trailers, including radiation levels so alarming that  Nuclear Regulatory inspectors at times refused to perform routine radiation surveys. A contaminated steam generator taken from a reactor exposed workers for 10 days, a Nuclear Regulatory Commission report form 1981 revealed.

Hundreds of pieces of contaminated radioactive equipment were stored on both sides of Interstate 5, which bisects the San Onofre nuclear waste dump now under construction following shut-down of the facilities.  Some were openly exposed to weather.


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EAST COUNTY ROUNDUP: LOCAL AND STATEWIDE NEWS

September 23, 2015 (San Diego's East County) -- East County Roundup highlights top stories of interest to East County and San Diego’s inland regions, published in other media. This week’s top “Roundup” headlines include:

LOCAL/REGIONAL

STATE

For excerpts and links to full stories, click “read more” and scroll down.


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SAN DIEGO COUNTY SUPERVISORS SAY NO SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL

 

Originally Published on the ECOreport

By Roy L Hales

September 17, 2015 (San Diego) - San Diego County’s Board of Supervisors made history today. Californians have never voted on whether to demand the Department of Energy remove nuclear waste. As San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station is decommissioned, a toxic waste dump is being built 600 feet from the Pacific Ocean, and roughly the same distance from the I-5. Unless some action is taken, 1,400 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel will be stored there. The Board of Supervisors voted 4-0, to “add to the County’s Legislative Program support for legislation that would remove and relocate outside of the San Diego region the spent nuclear fuel stored at the decommissioned San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station.” San Diego BOS Says NO Spent Nuclear Fuel.


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CPUC JUDGE FINDS 10 VIOLATIONS BY EDISON IN SAN ONOFRE CLOSURE DEAL

 

 

East County News Service

August 7, 2015 (San Diego) – Southern California Edison could face up to $34 million in sanctions for violating a ban on backdoor communications with state regulators over the San Onofre closure. Those are the findings of California Public Utilities Commission administrative law judge Melanie Darling, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.

Darling will determine on August 20th whether or nor to hold Edison in contempt.  Her ruling faults Edison executives Ronald Litzinger and Stephen Pickett for omitting facts from prior testimony about secret meetings with former CPUC chair Michael Peevey, including meetings at a posh hotel lin Poland.


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JUDGE RULES SAN ONOFRE SETTLEMENT CASE SHOULD NOT BE HEARD IN FEDERAL COURT

 

By Miriam Raftery

April 17, 2015 (San Onofre) - A federal judge has ruled that a lawsuit filed by Citizens Oversight on behalf of ratepayers challenging the San Onofre settlement agreement should be heard in state court, not federal.


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CALLING ON THE CPUC TO INVESTIGATE SONGS SETTLEMENT

 

Originally Published on the ECOreport

By Roy L Hales

March 23, 2015 (San Diego’s East County) - The lives of more than 8 million Californians may have been put at risk, when the steam generators at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) malfunctioned. The subsequent California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) investigation failed to probe into the extent to which Southern California Edison (SCE) was responsible for the facilities “design errors.”  Now  the California Assembly Committee on Utilities and Commerce is calling on the CPUC to investigate the SONGS settlement.


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CITIZENS OVERSIGHT SUES CPUC OFFICIALS ON BEHALF OF RATEPAYERS; ALLEGES BILLING FOR POWER NEVER PRODUCED AT SAN ONOFRE

 

By Miriam Raftery

November 16, 2014 (San Diego’s East County) –Citizen's Oversight and the law firm of Aguirre & Severson have filed a Federal lawsuit against two top public utility officials and Southern California Edison (SCE) for allegedly violating the constitutional rights of SDG&E ratepayers and SCE ratepayers by taking over  $3 billion without just compensation. 

View lawsuit here: http://www.copswiki.org/Common/M1518


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READER'S EDITORIAL: STOP THE UNFAIR SAN ONOFRE SETTLEMENT

 

By Ray Lutz, Citizens Oversight Projects

July 5, 2014 (El Cajon)-- Please take a look at this video presentation I created to be presented to the CPUC.  http://youtu.be/2umrwqLz_MI

The proponents of the $3.3 billion settlement proposal have met with the CPUC commissioners and their advisors in private meetings.  They would not allow me to make this power-point presentation at the recent public meeting. However, we are allowed to have private meetings of the same length as those granted to the proponents.


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SENATORS URGE STRONGER REGULATION OF CLOSED NUCLEAR PLANTS

 

By Miriam Raftery

May 8, 2014 (San Diego)--California Senator Barbara Boxer and four other U.S. senators have sent a letter to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission urging that stronger emergency regulations and security steps be taken at closed nuclear power plants where tons of spent radioactive fuel is stored.


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SEMPRA PROFITS SOAR -- THANKS TO RATE HIKES

 

May 2, 2014 (San Diego's East County) - Ratepayers are feeling the pinch from higher utility bills due to rate hikes recently approved by the California Utilities Commission.


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SETTLEMENT REACHED OVER SAN ONOFRE: RATEPAYERS TO RECEIVE REFUNDS IF CPUC APPROVES DEAL

 

By Miriam Raftery

March 27, 2014 (San Diego)—After the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Stations (SONGS) were shut down in 2012 due to faulty steam generators, San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) and Southern California Edison (SCE) continued to charge ratepayers for the costs associated with replacing those generators.  Edison later announced permanent decommissioning of the nuclear facility in June 2013 due to serious safety problems.

Ratepayers will be receiving refunds from SDG&E and Edison for those charges, if a joint settlement agreement announced today is approved by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC).  The settlement was reached SCE, the CPUC Office of Ratepayer Advocates, and The Utility Reform Network (TURN).


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READER'S EDITORIAL: END OF DEBATE, LOCAL CLEAN ENERGY WILL KEEP THE LIGHTS ON

 

By Kathleen Connell

March 8, 2014 (San Diego's East County) - The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) will soon make a decision on how to replace the power from San Onofre.  This is a decision with consequences for generations to come.  The choice is local clean energy such as rooftop solar, energy efficiency, and conservation or natural gas power plants, i.e., fossil fuel generation.  Local clean energy fights climate change, doesn’t pollute our air, already supports hundreds of well-paying local jobs, and lowers electricity bills.  Natural gas power plants ramp up greenhouse gases, worsen air quality, average only 10-20 permanent employees, and raise electricity bills for all of us because they are funded by ratepayers and cost anywhere from $1 billion to $5 billion each.  And we are shackled to these monuments of the past for decades.


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RATEPAYERS TO RALLY WITH MESSAGE TO UTILITY COMPANIES: “YOU BREAK IT, YOU BUY IT” AT CPUC HEARING OCT. 1 ON SAN ONOFRE DECOMMISSIONING COSTS

 

September 29, 2013 (San Diego) – On Tuesday, October 1st, the California Public Utilities Commission will hold hearings in San Diego on who should pay for costs of the now-closed down San Onofre Nuclear Generation Stations – ratepayers or utility companies. The hearings will be held from 2-5 p.m. and again from 6:30-9;30 p.m. at the Al Bahr Shriners auditorium, 5440 Kearny Mesa, San Diego. 

The Coalition to Decommission San Onofre plans to hold a press conference outside the site at 1 p.m. In the evening from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., members of the Overpass Light Brigade will be outside the hearing to draw attention to ratepayers’ concerns.


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CPUC TO HOLD HEARING OCT. 1 IN SAN DIEGO ON WHETHER RATEPAYERS SHOULD PAY SDGE'S SAN ONOFRE COSTS

 

September 4, 2013 (San Diego) – On the heels of a hefty rate increase that took effect September 1st, SDG&E wants  ratepayers to  pay for $808 million in costs of decommissioning the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Stations.  Ratepayer advocates, meanwhile, say ratepayers should receive a refund for charges assessed when the nuclear facility was off-line for more than a year before being shut down permanently.

The California Public Utilities Commission will hold two hearings on Tuesday, October 1 at 2 p.m. and again at 6:30 p.m. Both will be held in the Al Bahr Shriners auditorium, 5440 Kaerny Mesa Road, San Diego 92111. The commission will consider whether or not ratepayers should be charged for the decommissioning costs, as well as whether ratepayers should receive refunds for charges assessed while the nuclear facilities were offline for more than a year before the shut-down decision.


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EDITORIAL: MAKE SHAREHOLDERS, NOT RATEPAYERS, PAY THE COST OF SAN ONOFRE FIASCO

 

By John Mattes, Much Better Choices

Who should pay for San Onofre fiasco? The answer is obvious. Shareholders collect dividends while ratepayers pay tens of millions of dollars a year for a defunct nuclear plant. It's time for the PUC to step up.

There may be lots of questions yet to be answered about Southern California Edison's permanent shutdown of its San Onofre nuclear plant, but here are a couple about which there's no doubt. Who's responsible? Edison, 100%. Accept no argument that it did the best it could in overseeing a $700-million generator replacement project, but accidents happen. This wasn't an accident: It was the product of what Edison claims was its rigorous oversight of contractors.


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CITIZENS OVERSIGHT SAYS CPUC VIOLATED OPEN MEETING LAWS



Demand Letter is the First Step to Legal Action



June 16, 2013 (San Diego) -- Citizens' Oversight, an organization that encourages citizens to take an active role in oversight of their democracy, submitted a demand letter to the California Public Utilities Commission on June 11 alleging that the CPUC violated open meeting laws by halting the group’s representative, Ray Lutz (photo, left), from videotaping  a recent public meeting on the San Onofre nuclear plant held in San Francisco.  The watchdog group’s letter seeks removal of the CPUC’s administrative law judge from the proceedings and other remedies.

Martha Sullivan with the Coalition to Decommission San Onofre said, "It was disheartening to see the CPUC judge presiding over this investigation of multi-billion dollar regulated utilities be more concerned with their privacy than allowing the Southern California public to observe the evidentiary hearings."


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REACTIONS AND CONCERNS VOICED OVER SAN ONOFRE SHUTDOWN

 

By Miriam Raftery

June 9, 2013 (San Diego’s East County) – As ECM reported on June 7, the San  Onofre Nuclear Generating Stations  (SONGS) will be shut down permanently.  Reactions locally range from celebration among activists pushing for the closure to concerns over stored nuclear fuel, job losses, and a new bill that could ramp up pressure for approval of other energy projects including large-scale wind and solar projects in East County.


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SAN ONOFRE NUCLEAR PLANT TO CLOSE PERMANENTLY

 

 

By Nadin Abbott

June 7, 2013 (San Onofre) – Southern California Edison (SCE) announced today that it will permanently decommission both reactors at its troubled Onofre nuclear generation plant.  (SCE has made this decision due to the uncertainty brought by the increased requirements for safety from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). 

“Looking ahead,” said Ron Litzinger, SCE’s President, “we think that our decision to retire the units will eliminate uncertainty and facilitate orderly planning for California’s energy future.” 

The nuclear waste on-site will remain there in dry cask storage—encased in stainless steel and concrete—until national leaders come up with a permanent storage solution, Patch.com reported.


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